100g Sump

[DannyBoy17]

Hello all,

I'm thinking about attempting top build a sump for me 100g tank. The man I bought it from left a hole in the glass, at the top (which I covered with a peice of plexi) and a hole below, on the back of the stand. He kept saltwater, so Im sure these were cut for a sump. Anyways, I was just wondering if you guys had any ideas for how to go about this.

One thing Im not sure about is that the size of this hole is about 4-5 inches in diameter (hole in top-side of tank). Was this where the water was pumped back into the tank? If so, how big of a pump would one need to power the water back up into the tank from below. Or is this hole for were the water exits the tank and enters the sump? If so, woul'dn't the gravity cause a huge suction force in the tank? It's a fairly big hole, and that's a lot of water flowing down constantly. I can add pictures if you want, Im sure they owuld help.

Anyways, all ideas are welcome.

Cheers,

DB

 

[Silly me]

Add some plumming to the hole to a sump, any size sump would work but the bigger the better..

full the tank to the bottom of the hole. see no water gets spilled! so now add a small pump to the sump, pumping a little bit of water to the tank from the sump.. you'll notice only the amount of water that you pump to the tank get overflown into the hole back to the sump, adding a bigger pump just increase the cycle.

a sump is just a extra area of the tank acting as a filter that could also house the heaters, and other stuff you would have to hide in the tank

The bigger the sump the more filter media it could house, being a bigger filter..

 

[impur]

Dan - You will need a bulkhead to go through the glass. If the hole is 4-5" i would guess the bulkhead would be around 1.5"-2". This will allow you to plumb the drain to the sump. As Silly me pointed out, when water is pumped back up to the main tank, only the water that is higher than the hole will drain. I would suggest a pretty decent sized pump for the return, a mag9.5 at the smallest. Of course this all depends on what flow you want and already have. Put up a few pics for us, it helps a ton.

 

[DannyBoy17]

Hole in stand. Roughly 3-4'' diameter.

Hole in tank. Same diameter.

 

[DannyBoy17]

Here is a picture of the side where the two holes are. The hole in the tank is right at the top of the tank, and the hole in the stand is right at the yop of the stand.

DB

 

[impur]

It looks like there was an overflow box or something glued to the tank. Is that the case? What is that white stuff that makes a box around the hole?

 

[DannyBoy17]

Lol, that's just an emergency patch up job, silicone and plexi. Is was originally just a hole there.

D

 

[DannyBoy17]

*nudges to top*

 

[andywg]

You're best bet would be to creat a weir into that hole from plexi (essentially an open box that would allow you to fill the tank higher without the water draining down.

As mentioned before, fit a bulkhead and connect the pipe to drain down into the sump. Get as large a tank as you can to fit under tha tank that will still allow you to carry out maintenance easily. then get a pump that can handle the head (most of the marine boys can help with this side of things) and still give around 3-5 times your tank and sump's volume in an hour.

If you think the hole in the tank is too big you can always reduce the pipe diameter or put a valve (ball or needle) in to slow the flow.

I would recommend searching through the Marine section as a lot of the physical connecting of the sump and display tank will be the same for FW. If you need help with specifics I may be able to help (having gone through all the trouble myself...)

HIH

Andy